2015 batch 1: Cyser - Removing oak and back sweetening

It has now been almost 4 weeks since I added the oak to my mead, and after tasing it, I was very satisfied. The taste was actually so pleasent that I had to taste twice ..... :o)... but still the mead is quite dry.  Then I measured the SG of the mead and it was now just 6 Oe - I earlier measured it to 8 Oe, so perhaps a slow fermentation or lots of precipitation has lowered the SG even more

Before disturbing the mead I also removed the sediment from the bottom. Again, a garbage bag over the outlet, and then I just let it run at full flow for less than a second. Emptying the garbage bag into a measuring beaker, I had removed about 0.5L (including spill.....)

Then it was time to remove the "hop bag" with oak. This was quite easy to do because of the string I had attached to the bag.  Now I could just pull it out instead of digging after it with a brewing spoon.

Finally, it was time for back sweetening. I had saved a container with 1500 g honey for this purpose. I as it turned out this is pretty much exactly what I need, so I did not have to supply with extra.

First a little calculation. The volume of the mead is about 39L. So using the formula of HoneyOeshcle equations in knowledge tools of this blog (HERE) under addition of honey you get:
Oe(new) = (Oe(must) * V(must) + m(honey)/3) / (V(must) + m(honey)/density(honey)*1000)

So,
Oe(new) = [6 * 39L + 1500g/3] / [39L + 1500g/1400g/L] = 18.3

Just below 20 is OK with me since the mead I have made earlier do end up on the sweet side after some storage time

Honey is not easily stirred into solution at 22C so instead of just pouring it into the conical fermenter I just poured as much as I could into a 5L flask and filled it up to with mead after. I weighed the container before and after addition to get the best measure of how much honey I added: 1647g-137g = 1510g honey added. The flask was than shaken and rolled for quite a while and finally left overnight on the kitchen table.

The follwing day the honey was dissolved and there was no sticky "strings" on the in-side of the glass flask. So the flask was then emptied into the fermenter and the entire mead was stirred well, Then the lid was put back on. After half an hour I took the lid off again and measured SG. I measured about 18 Oeshcle so it matched very well my calculations.

Since I had added a well shaken portion of mead, I wanted to remove as much of the oxygen as possible. So I used my CO2 generator to just add a layer of CO2 over the mead to ensure that it will be saturated with CO2. I did not lock the lid during the addition of CO2, so that any over pressure would be equalized.

Then I sealed up the fermenter and now it is just time to wait. Wait to see if the fermention restarts, and wait to see if cloudyness of the honey cleares up by precipitation. Otherwise I am ready with Kieselsol and Chitosan - and a filtration if neccessary :o)